Daily Details

Lately Gray's happy place is the bathroom sink. He climbs up there any time the bathroom door is open. A lot of the time, this is right after baths. He has absolutely no interest in a towel. He climbs up on the toilet, nudey-booty, up onto the counter and then sits in the sink and jokes with himself in the mirror, and pulls the sink plug rod up and down, or clean out of the sink [it doesn't really work.] He will stay in their upwards of 20 minutes if I let him! Happy as a clam.

The boys have also been obsessed with shoes, the past couple weeks. Most mornings, I get them out of their cribs and change their bums right away. I get them a clean shirt, but I let them go pantsless unless we're going somewhere. If we're just staying home I have no desire to pull their pants off and put them back on at every diaper change. Call it lazy, call it efficient. It's not changing any time soon. haha. However, the boys have a little shoe basket in their room, and without fail, the very next thing they do is run over to it pick out a "thoo" and run over to me to put it on their foot. This happens until all 4 feet are covered, and then some. How do you reason with an 18-month-old who already has tennis shoes on his feet that is shoving a flip-flop in your face and demanding "thoo! thoo!" But taking off one of the tennis shoes is absolutely not an option. How dare you think that! haha. They crack me up. [Gray was the one sad about not having a third foot, just for the record.]

Something has recently gotten into Nash and he refuses to get out of bed unless I am ready to wrap him in his blanket and snuggle him in the rocking chair for a minute or two. I truly don't mind it one bit. I love that he is a snuggle bug. And all too soon, his little head pops off my shoulder and he slides off my lap to go find the shoe basket. But some mornings he asks for "Harry" and we read Harry, the dirty dog cover to cover at least twice.

The other day, we were up in the playroom and I was trying to convince Nash that there were other books to read besides Harry. He walked over, picked up a book of Row, Row, Row your boat, pointed to a duck on one of the pages and started "cack! cack! cack!" ing. I have never asked him what sound a duck makes. As far as I know, neither has Cameron. Someone taught him that, but it definitely wasn't me. Here's looking at you, grandparents! Or maybe one of the cousins we visited a couple weeks ago? Either way, it made my day. Smart cookie.

Bedtime Prayers

We've been working a lot lately on folding our arms and being reverent for prayers. It normally lasts less than 5 seconds and the rest of the prayer is spent running in circles around me. But sometimes, things just click. Those moments are pure gold as a parent.

Tonight, Cameron was out at a seminar late. I let the boys play outside after dinner. I talked to my sister Lindsay on the phone. She still hasn't had her baby. But she is loopy! She always makes me laugh so hard. I opened the back door and said, "Let's go get in the tub!" They both ran right inside, up the stairs, and I found Gray trying to open the bathroom door by the time I got up there. Smart cookie.

After bathtime, we did jammies and a story. And then I knelt on their bedroom floor just like I always do, for prayers. I asked Nash to fold his arms. He sat down right next to me and folded his arms. I asked Gray to fold his arms and he gave me a sneaky grin and ran around a little bit to see what I would do. I started the prayer anyway, hoping to reward Nash's behavior before the opportunity passed. I can't help but sneak peaks at the boys whenever they fold their arms or hands for the prayer, so I had my eyes open a tiny crack. Just enough to watch as Granger knelt in the space near me and Nash. Making our family prayer a circle for the very first time. They both folded their arms until I said "amen." And then jumped up as proud as they could be. And I smothered them in kisses, and we cheered with our hands in the air touchdown style.

Being a mom is the best.

note- this picture was taken a few nights earlier. we have slowly but surely been working on this habit, so there have been a few fleeting opportunities to snap moments like this!